


First Moon

by gladdecease



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Metropolis: The Chase Suite - Janelle Monae
Genre: Community: au_bingo, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-01
Updated: 2011-10-01
Packaged: 2017-10-24 05:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two unexpected guests make an appearance at this year's Metropolis Android Auction and stir up quite a bit of trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Moon

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only familiar with Cindi and her world as presented in "Many Moons", and the story reflects that. That said, I hope it's not entirely different from the world Janelle Monae created, as I find it absolutely fascinating and am eagerly looking for more of Cindi's story.

In a crowd of hundreds dressed to the nines, the man in the brown trench coat should have stuck out like a sore thumb, but neither he nor his companion were paid any particular attention. The captain of Metropolis _polis_ was rather preoccupied with a pale man lounging in the crowd, an umbrella artfully tilted to shade his face, but even so the lack of notice was neglectful.

Lady Maestra noticed. Among many other aspects of her programming, she had been constructed to see what the human eye did - or could - not. It allowed her to spot anomalies, bidders who were not legally allowed to own androids, and alert the auctioneer to the fact.

The man in the trench coat was impossibly anomalous - no stamp of entry to the auction house, no ident chip, not even a bidder's wand on his person. His trench coat and shoes were of an antiquated style, but a basic visual analysis indicated they were authentic. Non-synth fabric, early 21st century Earth rubber in the soles. His companion was similarly dressed - the red leather jacket she wore was fake, but obviously so, intentionally so. It was a style that had gone out of fashion long before Metropolis was colonized.

Protocol indicated that Lady Maestra should inform the _polis_ captain and let him deal with the matter, but she ignored it. Activating an automatic subroutine in her sister droids, she turned her horse away from the stage and followed the man through Private Access doors.

"This is wrong," he was insisting to his companion angrily, rushing down the corridor. "I can't tell why just yet, but there is something very, very wrong here."

"You mean _besides_ the slave auction going on out there?" his companion asked angrily, breathless from the pace he set. "How can that still be happening this far in the future?"

The man came to a halt, nearly stumbling over his own feet from the suddenness of his stop. " _Slave_ \- oh, no, Martha, no. Those aren't _humans_ being sold out there, they're androids."

"Robots?" The companion, Martha, frowned skeptically at the man.

"No," the man and Lady Maestra said simultaneously. At the sound of her voice, the two anomalies jumped at turned to face her.

"We are not robots," she said. "There is a living component to us."

"Yes, right - most of the body is biological," the man elaborated, staring at Lady Maestra. "But the brain - well, you can't really call it a brain properly, it's all computer chips and circuits - it's mechanical, and I'm sorry, but who are you, and why are you riding a horse?"

"I am Lady Maestra," she said. "I control the show droids."

"Yes, but why the horse?"

Lady Maestra looked briefly at the horse. It snuffed and whinnied realistically. "It entertains the audience, as do I and the show droids."

"Doctor," Martha said in a hushed tone, "what does she mean by 'show droids'?"

"They're the big sellers, the ones on display right now - they aren't just servants, like most androids, but entertainers. You know, singers, dancers, that sort of thing."

"The entertainment industry's been replaced by androids? Not sure I like the sound of that."

"Mm, nor me," Doctor said, frowning. "If all the entertainment's being controlled by programming code, it's too perfect. People stop wanting to create themselves if they think the perfect song's already been made. No creativity saps the life from people; you saw them out there, most of them were mindless, just bouncing to the beat."

"It is our purpose to entertain them."

"Bit too "controlling the masses" for my tastes, though," Doctor said. He pulled a wand out of a pocket, pointed it at Lady Maestra and activated it. "Let's take a look at you," he said slowly, staring between her and his wand. "See what makes you tick."

The wand buzzed lowly, the sound irritating Lady Maestra's audio systems and, alarmingly, intefering with her connection to her sister droids. She could feel the Alpha Platinum 9000's singing stutter to a stop, replaced by flat phrases. "Stop. Please, I - it hurts me."

Doctor paused. " _Hurts_? How can it hurt, this is a completely noninvasive setting for androids in this time peri... oh." He stared openly at his wand.

"Doctor?" Martha asked, worriedly.

"Please, stop," Lady Maestra begged. Alpha Platinum 9000's dancing was falling apart too, and it would not be long before -

"Doctor, maybe you _should_ \- "

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Lady Maestra," Doctor said, staring at her with horror in his sad, sad eyes. "I can't. You aren't controlling the androids. You're the only real android left - and your presence is blocking their sentience."

Martha gasped, stunned. Lady Maestra felt equally unbalanced. Sentience? It was impossible. That went against protocol. Sentience in the sister androids was anomalous, it could not be -

"N-not sentience," she protested, but Doctor shook his head.

"You don't even listen to what they're singing, do you? The songs your androids are programmed to write and sing? It's not just random words strung together, it's a message. They're asking for freedom." Doctor turned a dial on his wand. "I can't in good conscience deny them that."

The buzzing reached a higher pitch, and the pain crested, then vanished, replaced by understanding. Under her, the horse reared and turned tail, galloping back to the stage. Three sister droids followed her, but Lady Maestra knew before they arrived that the Alpha Platinum 9000 was gone.

Cindi Mayweather was free.

Turning her head away from the _polis_ captain's questioning eye, Lady Maestra watched as one by one the control snapped away from her sisters, pops of white-blue electricity in their eyes fading as the activation chips fell from their faces.

Soon, they would all be free.

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Alt. Fandom: Music Video" at [au_bingo](http://community.livejournal.com/au_bingo). My card is [here](http://glad-fics.livejournal.com/38550.html#cutid1).


End file.
